Kaleidoscope

December 1, 2001
Madame Karitska's trade as a fortune-teller attracts a strange array of clients, including an artistic woman whose husband abandons her to join a religious cult and an Italian immigrant with a "cursed" child. Karitska also helps her good friend, Detective-Lieutenant Pruden, solve the hit-and-run death of a young violinist and the murder of a local philanthropist. Her most troubling case, however, occurs when a subway incident leaves her with an attache case full of diamonds. This well-written, episodic adventure, with a generous and charming Old World heroine who first appeared 25 years ago in The Clairvoyant Countess, will appeal to many, especially fans of Gilman's Mrs. Polifax series.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2001
The author of the Mrs. Pollifax novels returns to a character she hasn't revisited in decades--the charming clairvoyant Madame Karitska. While the chapters tell an intertwined and progressive tale, many of them are also small mysteries in themselves. Although the characterizations are featherweight, the writing moves as gracefully and attractively as the madame, who works by " psychometry," holding an object that was in close contact with the person she is reading. She brings those who love together, provides just the right nudge to get a father and daughter back in touch, and helps an artist to recognize her talent. She lives in genteel shabbiness in an urban brownstone and has a large collection of friends and acquaintances--police officers, painters, ex-cons, former Viennese neighbors. She's also been very young and poor in Kabul, and one of the gossamer subplots involves some nearly overlooked terrorist threats. A light read with some heavy underpinnings.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)